It's even rarer if friends pursue their dream with the same passion. On Thursday morning, the trio travelled over 340 km from Etawah district in Uttar Pradesh to attend a counselling session at Dhyeya IAS Coaching Institute in Civil Lines, Allahabad. And it's rarest when the dream of three friends comes crashing down in unison. "We know, CSAT [the Civil Services Aptitude Test] won't let us become IAS officers," they say in a single voice of dejection.

But what made these final year students from Kanpur University give up? After all, the counsellor was pretty confident that these lads could crack the exams.

The cow is our mother, we warship her. She is a scared animal. Cow is a holy animal. It is believed that all her organs Gods exists... A piece of paper, on which these three close friends reluctantly agreed to write a few sentences on the cow in English, is what made them realize that they stand no chance of becoming IAS officers.

"Let us not make fun of these students," says VK Trivedi, director at Dhyeya, defending them. They have come from Hindi-medium schools and need a bit of handholding, he adds. Why can't the UPSC (Union Public Services Commission, the central agency that conducts civil services examinations, amongst others) teach them English once they clear the examinations, asks Trivedi, who teaches geography at the centre which is quite popular among Hindi-medium students.

A civil engineer, Trivedi was once a civil services aspirant and had faced IAS interviews thrice between 2000 and 2003. "They [students] have never said that they won't learn English."

Gupta, for one, definitely wants to learn English. But not for taking IAS exams. "We come from a small village where English was taught to us in government school from standard VI," adds Gupta, who is pursuing BSc (Maths). "We want to take the IAS exam in Hindi, which is our language. Why don't you have a Hindi comprehension passage for English-medium students? Make them write an essay in Hindi. Can they?"

Questioning the Format

Language unites people. And this time it's the turn of an alien language. English is uniting the disparate Hindi-speaking civil services aspirants across the country, especially in Uttar Pradesh, but for a different cause — to revolt against the use of the Queen's language in the IAS exam which is seen as elitist, biased against rural folk and favourable to city-based English-medium educated students who are finding the new format of the civil services examination easier to crack.

In fact, the new exam format, which was rolled out in 2011, gave some ammunition to agitating students from the cow belt to target the language. Google Translator was used by the UPSC to translate CSAT questions from English to Hindi.

Phew, some are wrong translations and others are words that are not spoken or written at all. The misery of the Hindi students, however, doesn't end here. They also had to contend with English comprehension skills which they claim were too tough for a student from rural backgrounds to understand. End result: confusion, frustration, discontentment against the system and finally anger against the language. That the Arvind Verma committee, which was set up to examine if changes were required, has recommended a status quo and has advised against tinkering with the exam format has come as a further blow to the protesting students. The committee, though, has suggested that the quality of translation from English to Hindi should be improved.

What started as a fight against the Google translator is now a full-blown war against English, which is seen as a major source of misery for millions of Hindi-speaking people residing in villages and smaller towns.

"CSAT is a cold-blooded conspiracy against Hindi," claims Trivedi. Is this an English aptitude test or a civil services aptitude test, he asks, adding that UPSC doesn't want Hindimedium students to qualify. "Humne soch liya hai ki angrezi ke bina kuch nahin hoga. Ye soch hamein badlni padegi [We have decided that nothing is possible without English. We have to change this mentality]," he says, lamenting the fact that too much importance is being given to English in India.

The Great Barrier

Clearly, it's now English versus Hindi. Trivedi's grouse against English is shared by thousands of Hindi students across Uttar Pradesh. Go to any IAS coaching institute, and the story remains the same. Katra, close to Allahabad University road, is dotted with coaching centres of all kinds — IAS, state services, NET, JRF...Surprisingly, all the students, whether civil services aspirants or not, take a strong anti-English stand. The scene doesn't change a bit even after entering the Allahabad University which, during the '70s and '80s, was among the top universities in India.

Angry students are raising slogans against CSAT, a few militant ones are busy burning effigies of 'English' and the non-violent souls are loitering around the lush green campus and cheering anti-English abuses that fly from every nook and corner of the campus. Just a stone's throw away, Meera Dixit is sitting under a tree as there is no electricity in the campus. The former head of the Hindi department of the Allahabad University is outraged by the state of education in her university and state.

"The demand to scrap CSAT is outrageous," she says, "I have seen the paper and there is no problem with it." Even if we take into account the stupidity of Google translator, does that make it a strong enough reason to scrap the format, she asks. "Anybody with even a basic understanding of English would know that steel plant is not lohe ka paudha. So what is the fuss about," exclaims Dixit.

But if there is no problem with the paper, why are the students protesting? When both your hands are tied and you are thrown inside the boxing ring, what would you do, she asks. "The only thing that you would do is to scream foul loudly. That's what the students are doing." The education system at the state level has deprived millions of bright and able students of familiarity with English. "This has put them on the back foot. So when pitted against the better educated, English-medium counterparts from cities, they are at a loss," she explains.

But are Hindi-speaking students able to crack the exam? It's not about ability, says Dixit, adding that nobody ever questioned their abilities. "They are indeed able, but they are not capable. Kum se kum layak to baniye is job ke liye. Ek application to aapse likhi jaati nahin hai! [At least become capable for this job. You can't even write an application!]. You don't even know elementary English and you want to become a civil servant. It's ridiculous," she says.

Dixit offers explanations for what has horribly gone wrong with Allahabad University. In 1969, English was made an optional subject and at the same time reservation was implemented in selection of teachers. "The result is for all to see. Come to Allahabad even after 45 years, things won't change for the better."

Dixit's pessimism is shared by another professor who teaches at an IAS coaching institute in Katra. "They [Hindi-medium civil services aspirants] are frogs in the well. For them, life revolves around a government job," says Nishant Yadav (first name changed). After putting in years preparing for UPSC, if they don't make it, then they start preparing for state services, he adds. "And if they fail to crack it, then they sit for some research examination, get stipend from UGC and life goes on." "The idea of a job in the private sector is anathema to these students," says Yadav. And politicians must take the credit for this mess, especially Mulayam Singh Yadav who scrapped Anti-Copying Act in the early 1990s. "When there is a licence to copy, why would anybody study?"

Back to Dhyeya Coaching Institute in Civil Lines, hundreds of students come every day to study. Young Mithilesh Yadav is one of them. There is a perception that Hindi medium students are not smart and those coming from private schools are intelligent, says the 24-year-old who is taking the civil services examination this month in Hindi medium. A graduate, Yadav had maths, physics and chemistry as her main subjects in college. "Is it our fault that we have studied in Hindi? If not, then why are we being discriminated," she asks. "Will you be fair in your reporting or you would be biased because it's an English newspaper," she fumes, making apparent her trust deficit with those speaking English.

Her friend Harshit Tiwari is equally charged up over the Hindi-English debate. When asked how would they communicate if as civil servants they are posted to Kerala and they don't know English, Tiwari offers a counter question. "What if those from Kerala get posted in UP? Do they know Hindi? How would they communicate?" Discrimination on the basis of language is unconstitutional, says Tiwari, seething with anger. On the one hand you are conducting exams in Hindi and on the other you are ensuring that Hindi students fail. He adds: "Then better remove Hindi. Declare that only those who can talk and write English are eligible for exams. Why this sham?"

Trivedi, the director at Dhyeya, steps in to calm down things. "Friends, do grab samosa and cold drink before leaving for the day," he says. It's 3.30 pm and Trivedi has been continuously taking classes since 11 in the morning. He is not tired, but definitely worried. "Sharm ki baat hai ki ek chaiwaala pradhanmantri ban sakta hai lekin ek Hindi bolne waala IAS nahin ban sakta. (It's such a shame that a tea seller can become a prime minister but one speaking Hindi can't become an IAS)."

The protests against CSAT may have got muzzled over the weekend in Uttar Pradesh, but the deep undercurrent of anger and resentment against English is sure to manifest itself sooner than later. "The fight is now between the haves and have-nots," says Dixit of Allahabad University. "Nobody knows when and in what form this hostility will express itself." Can Google, which has empowered millions of people across the world, bridge this rural-urban divide in India? Well, for the time being, Allahabad and much of North India seem to be lost in translation.